After a couple days ignoring the detour by the Stoneway Village construction site (wait, now it’s called Prescott Wallingford), I heeded the sign at 38th and turned right up the hill.
It was a little confusing since after the first two signs, everything was oriented for southbound Interlake traffic. I guess that makes sense for pedestrians and bikes coming from the neighborhood, but since the southbound Stone bike lane is unaffected by the construction, I think many detour users are northbound bikes and it may have been a mistake. From looking back over my shoulder to see the signs, I think we were supposed to rejoin Stone Avenue at 40th, but even though that would have allowed us to see a little bit of the exciting construction site (the best part of the ride up Stone), I didn’t want to lose the extra altitude I’d gained. The next block was even steeper, but I was committed…and only had the little kid on board so it wasn’t too bad.
I’m glad I stuck with it because we discovered the turtle street mural at 41st and Interlake.
Later in the day, with both kids on board, we checked out the new bike lane on 45th. I agree with the Seattle bike blog article commenters that it’s not enough to make this block safe, but any additional markings can’t be bad. I hope it’s a move towards more separated bike lanes, even if it’s just paint separating the lanes for now. We don’t ride on Dexter a lot (because it’s a hill we can avoid on Westlake, plus we’d miss the Lake Union seaplanes and boats), but I like its new bike lane.
And one last ride for the day: I went out solo in the dark to attend the monthly preschool parents meeting. I had trouble deciding which bike to take since there are so many choices! I took the road bike last month so I could ride fast, but tonight I was too lazy to lace up my clipless shoes and didn’t want to deal with putting lights on my beach cruiser so I took the new bike. Wow, those dynamo lights (Alfine Dynamo hub with Lumotec IQ Cyo R N Plus lights) are bright! I don’t think I’ll be content to ride any other bike at night now.
Family Ride 
Great Mural! Thanks for posting the pic. There’s been talk within my neighborhood association to do a street mural but it’s more controversial than one might think.
Sounds like a Portlandia episode in the making ;) I think there are lots of hoops to jump through here, too, but it helps that there are already a couple in place in Wallingford and Green Lake.
Hey, Wallyhood just featured this Sightline Daily article about street murals and not surprisingly, they originated in Portland! Have you been by any/all of the projects in the article? They look so cool!